American Scientist

History has been punctuated regularly by colossal structural failures. The final configuration of the bent pyramid, completed almost four millennia ago in Dahshur, is believed to have resulted from its initially being built at the overly ambitious angle of 54 degrees. After a landslide of stone during construction, the builders apparently lowered their sights and changed the top section to a 43-degree incline. The 13th-century collapse of the cathedral at Beauvais marked the end of an era in Gothic building during which taller and lighter were the watchwords. In more modern times, the tendency to build ever longer and more slender bridges led to such catastrophic failures as the collapse of the Quebec cantilever bridge during construction in 1907 and of the infamous Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge in 1940, just three months after it was completed. Such tragedies are rooted in two human characteristics: the cultural drive to build ever-bolder structures and the hubris of master builders and engineers in their attempts to do so.